A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline eBook

on which there is an inscription, saying, “Asoka
gave the jambudvipa to the general body of all the
monks, and then redeemed it from them with money.
This he did three times."(10) North from the tope
300 or 400 paces, king Asoka built the city of Ne-le.(11)
In it there is a stone pillar, which also is more
than thirty feet high, with a lion on the top of it.
On the pillar there is an inscription recording the
things which led to the building of Ne-le, with the
number of the year, the day, and the month.

NOTES

(1) The modern Patna, lat. 25d 28s
N., lon. 85d 15s E. The Sanskrit
name means “The city of flowers.”
It is the Indian Florence.

(2) See chap. x, note 3. Asoka transferred
his court from Rajagriha to Pataliputtra, and there,
in the eighteenth year of his reign, he convoked
the third Great Synod,—­according, at least,
to southern Buddhism. It must have been held
a few years before B.C. 250; Eitel says in 246.

(3) “The Vulture-hill;” so
called because Mara, according to Buddhist tradition,
once assumed the form of a vulture on it to interrupt
the meditation of Ananda; or, more probably, because
it was a resort of vultures. It was near Rajagriha,
the earlier capital of Asoka, so that Fa-hien connects
a legend of it with his account of Patna. It abounded
in caverns, and was famous as a resort of ascetics.

(4) A Brahman by cast, but a Buddhist
in faith.

(5) So, by the help of Julien’s
“Methode,” I transliterate the Chinese
characters {.} {.} {.} {.}. Beal gives Radhasvami,
his Chinese text having a {.} between {.} and {.}.
I suppose the name was Radhasvami or Radhasami.

(6) {.} {.}, the names of two kinds of
schools, often occurring in the Li Ki and Mencius.
Why should there not have been schools in those monasteries
in India as there were in China? Fa-hien himself
grew up with other boys in a monastery, and no
doubt had to “go to school.” And
the next sentence shows us there might be schools for
more advanced students as well as for the Sramaneras.

(7) See chap. xvi, note 22.
It is perhaps with reference to the famous
Bodhisattva that the Brahman here
is said to be “also” named Manjusri.

(8) ? Cashmere cloth.

(9) See chap. xxiii, note 3.

(10) We wish that we had more particulars
of this great transaction, and that we knew what
value in money Asoka set on the whole world. It
is to be observed that he gave it to the monks,
and did not receive it from them. Their right
was from him, and he bought it back. He was the
only “Power” that was.

(11) We know nothing more of Ne-le.
It could only have been a small
place; an outpost for the defence
of Pataliputtra.

A Record of Buddhistic kingdoms: being an account by the Chinese monk Fa-hsien of travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399-414) in search of the Buddhist books of discipline from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.